Just a few years ago, video marketing is something that was very niche and small in terms of marketing. It’s astonishing to see just how big this particular tactic has become in recent years. Over 81% of businesses say they now use digital video as a marketing tool and 99% of those that use it plan to continue to do so in the future. Since video is on the rise, it is constantly changing and new ways to use video to market your business are always being introduced. In order for your business to utilize the power of video marketing, there are a few things about it to be aware of.
Social media video stories in which a combination of image and/or video posts are only accessible for a relatively short period of time, popularized by Snapchat and taken further with Instagram and Facebook are going to dominate this year. This format has proven to be radically popular with audiences and advertisers alike. In fact, more than 400 million people now view Instagram Stories daily. Furthermore, Stories is expected to double ad spend on Instagram. Utilizing these types of videos for your business can be an amazing way to make your products and offerings stand out.
Video marketing can be a great way to diversify your brand and keep up with brand awareness. Video will allow you to do this by creating interesting, educational, humor-filled, and entertaining content. This content will capture consumer attention and they will share the videos they like and due to that, people will tend to think of your videos when they think of products and services that they need that your business offers.
Video marketing can also be used to demonstrate your expertise in your business’ field and provide them answers and solutions to needs they were looking for, or better yet, that they didn’t even know they needed. You can also use video to create ads that use the content detailed above to feature direct call-to-actions.
Of course, you can’t forget industry giant YouTube. Their short-form ads are going to be a thing to lookout for as well. Have you clicked on a video on your phone and got a short, six second ad? I’m sure most of you have. These are called bumper ads and marketers are starting to utilize them.
Introduced in 2016 bumper ads are short six seconds ads that are immensely powerful for ad recall. They make for a more user-friendly experience as well because you aren’t forced to either watch or skip a 30 second ad that you don’t really even care about in the first place. Bumper ads are short, quick and to the point, allowing ads to stick the landing and create a form of advertising that, in some cases, are more effective than the traditional 30 second format.
Another way bumper ads are effective is how cost effective they are. You don’t need to spend money on a huge crew to film your ad. One person can more than likely get the job done. Since the ads are so short, minimal time is taken to film them as well. This frees up time significantly for other things. They can also be completed faster due to minimal time needed to edit the ads. This is optimal for companies without a large marketing budget or nearly anyone with a smartphone using YouTube Studio or another basic editing app or program.
The dawn of the mobile age has passed and has become our new normal. We are constantly connected to our phones. It seems like we use them for everything these days. One of the major things we use them for is entertainment. More specifically, we use them for videos. With more and more people watching content on mobile devices, be prepared to see the various platforms that exist today start to offer mobile-optimized video content. These include videos designed for vertical video, square and portrait-oriented videos.
Video marketing is an exciting, new way to market your business. As with any rising trend, it’s sure to constantly be evolving as new techniques are invented and innovations made to improve how video marketing can help businesses. But now is the time to investigate and see how you can use these benefits to put your business on the forefront of what seems to be one of digital marketing’s most important trends this year.
